Dope POD

Rihanna is firmly in control of her life and career—but not of her image, which has veered between club-hopping temptress and poster child for victims of domestic abuse. As the 27-year-old readies her long-awaited new album, she talks candidly about the chasm between her reality and her reputation.

What makes Rihanna special—outside of the music—is that she is someone who is genuinely herself. People connect with her. You are seeing the authentic version of who she is. You can see her scars and her flaws…. She’s gone through things that everyone’s gone through—dysfunctional relationships, things that played out in front of everyone’s eyes—and she’s done a real good job of keeping her life private, but just living her life as a young person … unapologetically. You have to have a tough skin in this business; you’re going to hear some things about yourself that you’re going to think, What?? Are you crazy? —Jay Z

I honestly think how much fun it would be to live my reputation. People have this image of how wild and crazy I am, and I’m not everything they think of me. The reality is that the fame, the rumors—this picture means this, another picture means that—it really freaks me out. It made me back away from even wanting to attempt to date. It’s become second nature for me to just close that door and just be O.K. with that. I’m always concerned about whether people have good or bad intentions. —Rihanna

Rihanna sits across the table from me in the private room at Giorgio Baldi, her favorite restaurant in L.A. Her hair is reddish, wavy; her face seems free of makeup. She’s even more beautiful in person than she is in her photos. She’s wearing a white crop top, denim cutoff shorts, Puma sneakers, and a flowing Chinese-patterned robe. When she orders three half-portions of pasta dishes (spaghetti pomodoro with basil, gnocchi, and ravioli), I ask how she maintains her curvy but slim figure. She says, “Legit, I have been in the gym every day this week because I am not willing to give up my food. But I will sacrifice an hour for the gym.” The 27-year-old woman in front of me is not the provocative, wild hip-hop prom queen, the sexy girl allegedly at the center of a jealous, bottle-throwing brawl in a nightclub, nor the habitué of L.A. and New York hot spots 1Oak and Up & Down. Nor is she the woman who has been described as badass, shocking, naughty, tough—pictured in tabloids and online with various rumored rapper/actor/athlete boyfriends. She is elegant, funny, straightforward, and downright horrified (and laughs hysterically) at all of the rumors I toss at her. And while people may assume that her life is just one big, long, sexy night out on the town, she insists it’s not true. I ask about her bad-girl reputation. “Honestly, I’ve been thinking lately about how boring I am,” she says. “When I do get time to myself, I watch TV.” Now we’re off and running, both of us mourning the end of Breaking Bad. She loves Bates Motel and forensics shows. What about NCIS and CSI? “I used to watch them,” she says, “until I found The First 48 [homicide detectives, cold-blooded murders at convenience stores] and Snapped [true stories of women who lost control and committed murder]. Those are things that actually happened in real life,” she says. “I’m stuck on the fact that these things actually happened. All those other things are just made-up stories.”

When it comes to made-up stories, Rihanna knows whereof she speaks. Despite all those rumors of sexual liaisons, Rihanna says her last real, official boyfriend was Chris Brown—when they briefly got back together three years after his arrest for assaulting her in 2009 (more about that later)—and, prior to that, then Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, who she says she was just getting to know when the paparazzi got a picture of them together. “We were still dating … we were just three months in and I liked his vibe, he was a good guy, and then paparazzi got us on vacation in Mexico. He handled it well; I didn’t. I got so uncomfortable because now what? He’s not even able to be seen with [another] girl, because I’m dragged back into headlines that say he’s cheating on me, and I don’t even [really] know this guy. Some guys … I don’t even have their number. You would not even believe it,” she says with a laugh. “I’m serious, hand to God.” Given that she’s supposed to be so freewheeling, can’t she just have sex for fun? “If I wanted to I would completely do that,” she says. “I am going to do what makes me feel happy, what I feel like doing. But that would be empty for me; that to me is a hollow move. I would wake up the next day feeling like shit.

‘When you love somebody, that’s different,” she continues. “Even if you don’t love them per se, when you care enough about somebody and you know that they care about you, then you know they don’t disrespect you. And it’s about my own respect for myself. A hundred percent. Sometimes it’s the first time I’m meeting this person—and then all of a sudden I’m ‘with them.’ It freaks me out. This industry creates stories and environments that can make you uncomfortable even being friends with someone. If you see me sitting next to someone, or standing next to someone, what, I’m not allowed to do that? I’m like, are you serious? Do you think it’s going to stop me from having a friend?” But, she adds, “I’m the worst. I see a rumor and I’m not calling [them] back. I’ve had to be so conscious about people—what they say and why people want to be with me, why people want to sleep with me…. It makes me very guarded and protective. I learned the hard way.“I always see the best in people,” she says. “I hope for the best, and I always look for that little bit of good, that potential, and I wait for it to blossom. You want them to feel good being a man, but now men are afraid to be men. They think being a real man is actually being a pussy, that if you take a chair out for a lady, or you’re nice or even affectionate to your girl in front of your boys, you’re less of a man. It’s so sick. They won’t be a gentleman because that makes them appear soft. That’s what we’re dealing with now, a hundred percent, and girls are settling for that, but I won’t. I will wait forever if I have to … but that’s O.K. You have to be screwed over enough times to know, but now I’m hoping for more than these guys can actually give.“That’s why I haven’t been having sex or even really seeing anybody,” she says, “because I don’t want to wake up the next day feeling guilty. I mean I get horny, I’m human, I’m a woman, I want to have sex. But what am I going to do—just find the first random cute dude that I think is going to be a great ride for the night and then tomorrow I wake up feeling empty and hollow? He has a great story and I’m like … what am I doing? I can’t do it to myself. I cannot. It has a little bit to do with fame and a lot to do with the woman that I am. And that saves me.”Is she lonely? “It is lonely,” she says, “but I have so much work to do that I get distracted. I don’t have time to be lonely. And I get fearful of relationships because I feel guilty about wanting someone to be completely faithful and loyal, when I can’t even give them 10 percent of the attention that they need. It’s just the reality of my time, my life, my schedule.”

RUN THIS GOWN
Rihanna takes a break in the Josie Alonso House, on Calzada Street, in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood.

ISLAND GIRL

Rihanna, born Robyn Rihanna Fenty 27 years ago in Bridgetown, Barbados, grew up in a family so close-knit that her report card had to be taken around to every aunt and uncle, and if she didn’t take it to them, they came over to her house to see it. She says that everybody knew what everyone else did and how well every child did in school—you couldn’t hide your failures; you had to face them. She memorized textbooks (her mother was very strict about grades) and played sports with her two younger brothers, Rorrey and Rajad. But from an early age she was obsessed with music: first reggae artists Barrington Levy and Beres Hammond, then Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Whitney Houston. Rihanna’s career began in 2004 when two American record producers, Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken—both of whom were married to Bajan women and vacationed in Barbados—heard her sing at a local audition, made demos with her, and eventually brought her to the U.S., where she lived in Stamford, Connecticut, with Rogers and his family. They made more demos and tried to get her a record deal. In 2005, at age 16, she auditioned for Def Jam Records’ then group chairman, L. A. Reid, president and C.E.O. Jay Z, and executives Jay Brown and Tyran “Ty Ty” Smith. Jay Brown, now part of the Roc Nation team that manages her, remembers her wearing all white, with her hair pulled back off her face. Rihanna says she wore white jeans, white boots, and a turquoise tube top from Forever 21. She remembers that her hair was wavy, parted to one side, and “I had just gotten my first weave.” She recalls sitting in the hallway when she saw Jay Z walk by, and she was so freaked out she made sure he didn’t see her. According to Ty Ty, “When she walked in the room and started singing, what got my attention was how she looked at you and the tone of her voice. She was very serious.” Jay Z recalls, “You see someone who comes in and you know if they have that look about them, that star quality—you can’t deny it.” Jay Brown says she had a fire in her eyes. But Rihanna says she had no idea she had any fire in her eyes: “These are people who worked with the most talented people in the music industry, and I’m a little seed, from an island far away; to even have the opportunity to audition for them seemed so out of reach. I was terrified; my knees were shaking.” She’d already been turned down by another label, but Def Jam wanted her, and she—along with her lawyer—stayed in the building for 12 hours, until three A.M., when she signed what she still refers to as a “great deal.” (Jay Brown laughs and says Ty Ty jokingly told the lawyer that the only way they were getting out of the building without signing was through the window.)Rihanna’s rise happened fast. “Pon de Replay,” an island-inspired dancehall tune, became a hit, followed by “SOS,” “Umbrella,” “Rude Boy,” “Only Girl (in the World),” “We Found Love,” “Diamonds,” and many others. She worked nonstop, releasing seven albums in eight years, and today, 10 years after her debut, she’s accumulated 54 million album sales, 13 No. 1 singles, and 210 million downloaded tracks. She’s toured and performed live concerts for millions of people around the world. She’s got 7 billion video views on YouTube, 50.7 million followers on Twitter, 25.4 million on Instagram, and 81.7 million Facebook fans. Even before her acting stint in the 2012 action movie Battleship, her fans called themselves her “navy.” She’s a singer, songwriter, producer, actress (most recently she voiced a character in the animated movieHome), a mentor on this season of The Voice, fashion designer, style setter (she was the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s 2014 Fashion Icon, was named to the International Best-Dressed List for the first time this year, is the creative director for Puma and the face of Dior’s Secret Garden campaign), entrepreneur (seven fragrances, a creative director for the Stance sock company), philanthropist (her foundation helps build cancer-treatment centers in Barbados, among other charitable activities), and eight-time Grammy winner.UNAPOLOGETICRihanna bares all in the bedroom of the Josie Alonso House.

SOS

But on February 7, 2009—the night before the Grammys—following Clive Davis’s party, an episode occurred that would change her life and probably forever be linked to her. Rihanna’s then boyfriend, her first love, R&B singer Chris Brown, assaulted her in his rented Lamborghini and left her bloodied and battered on the side of a street. Photos of her bruised and swollen face were leaked to TMZ by, says Rihanna, “a very nasty woman who thought a check was more important than morals. That shocks you? A check trumps morals by miles.” And in 2014, nearly six years after that attack, Rihanna was dragged into the Ray Rice domestic-abuse scandal when the N.F.L. and CBS chose not to play “Run This Town”—her hit with Jay Z and Kanye West—during an opening-week broadcast of the N.F.L. season. She reacted with anger on Twitter, and, says Jay Z, “Her response was appropriate. The N.F.L. felt it was a distraction, and she was like, ‘You’re punishing me for what happened with Ray Rice?’ ” I ask Rihanna if she thinks she’s always going to be a poster child for victims of domestic abuse. “Well, I just never understood that,” she says, “like how the victim gets punished over and over. It’s in the past, and I don’t want to say ‘Get over it,’ because it’s a very serious thing that is still relevant; it’s still real. A lot of women, a lot of young girls, are still going through it. A lot of young boys too. It’s not a subject to sweep under the rug, so I can’t just dismiss it like it wasn’t anything, or I don’t take it seriously. But, for me, and anyone who’s been a victim of domestic abuse, nobody wants to even remember it. Nobody even wants to admit it. So to talk about it and say it once, much less 200 times, is like … I have to be punished for it? It didn’t sit well with me.”

Rihanna is quiet and thoughtful when she talks about getting back with Brown for the second time and asking the court to lift the restraining order against him. “I was that girl,” she says, “that girl who felt that as much pain as this relationship is, maybe some people are built stronger than others. Maybe I’m one of those people built to handle shit like this. Maybe I’m the person who’s almost the guardian angel to this person, to be there when they’re not strong enough, when they’re not understanding the world, when they just need someone to encourage them in a positive way and say the right thing.” So, she thought she could change him? “A hundred percent. I was very protective of him. I felt that people didn’t understand him. Even after … But you know, you realize after a while that in that situation you’re the enemy. You want the best for them, but if you remind them of their failures, or if you remind them of bad moments in their life, or even if you say I’m willing to put up with something, they think less of you—because they know you don’t deserve what they’re going to give. And if you put up with it, maybe you are agreeing that you [deserve] this, and that’s when I finally had to say, ‘Uh-oh, I was stupid thinking I was built for this.’ Sometimes you just have to walk away.” Now, she says, “I don’t hate him. I will care about him until the day I die. We’re not friends, but it’s not like we’re enemies. We don’t have much of a relationship now.”

While Rihanna and Brown did a duet on a song in 2012 with a telling title (“Nobody’s Business”), her bigger collaborations have been with Jay Z and Kanye West—as well as two huge hits with Eminem, “Love the Way You Lie” and “The Monster.” According to Eminem, “I would definitely consider Rihanna a friend. She’s always been there for me, and I really enjoy working with her. As an artist, we have similar work ethics, so I’ve always been able to relate to her in that sense.” As for Rihanna’s take on him: “He’s one of my favorite people. He’s got so many layers and he’s such a good person—focused, disciplined. I mean you can’t tell me that you have to be in the club when Eminem is legit at home and being a good father and is still one of the most prestigious rappers of our generation. He’s one of the most talented poets of our time. It was such a brilliant moment to have him ask me to be part of a record; I felt … anointed, because he thought I was cool enough to be on [“Love the Way You Lie”]. But also, the lyrics [about a dysfunctional relationship] were just so true to what I felt and couldn’t say to the world at that time.”

SCENE AND HEARD
Fans surround Rihanna in Old Havana.

TALK THAT TALK

As our conversation continues into what technically is the next day, Giorgio’s keeps the restaurant open for her and we discuss a variety of topics: how little she sleeps (three to four hours), the tight team of friends she works with (her childhood friend Melissa Forde, right-hand woman Jennifer Rosales, and creative director Ciarra Pardo), how we’re both basketball fans in general and fans of LeBron James in particular. (“I woke up at seven A.M. in Japan to watch the last game of the finals,” she says. “I felt so bad when he lost.”) And she talks about Rachel Dolezal, the white N.A.A.C.P. executive who pretended to be black, saying, “I think she was a bit of a hero, because she kind of flipped on society a little bit. Is it such a horrible thing that she pretended to be black? Black is a great thing, and I think she legit changed people’s perspective a bit and woke people up.”Rihanna lives in downtown New York City, which she says she loves, and L.A., where she had to find a house with enough bedrooms to turn into closets for her ever expanding wardrobe. Some of the most photographed garments from that wardrobe include a blue fur jacket, a green fur coat, a coat with the Rolling Stones tongue logo on the back, a tuxedo jacket worn with nothing else, fluffy bedroom slippers worn in public, the gorgeous red Azzedine Alaïa dress she wore to the 2013 Grammys, the pink strapless Giambattista Valli gown she wore to the 2015 Grammys, the chic lavender Dior suit worn to the launch of the Tidal streaming service, and, of course, the embroidered, fur-trimmed, yellow satin Guo Pei-designed extravaganza at this past spring’s Met Ball—where she stole the show and appeared above the fold on the front page of the next day’s New York Times. It was typical of how Rihanna likes to mix things up; she accepted her C.F.D.A. award wearing a semi-nude, sheer gown covered with sparkly Swarovski crystals. “I wanted to wear something that looked like it was floating on me,” she recalls. “But after that, I thought, O.K., we can’t do this again for a while. No nipples, no sexy shit, or it’s going to be like a gimmick. That night [at the C.F.D.A. awards] was like a last hurrah; I decided to take a little break from that and wear clothes.”The same attitude extends to her music. She has recorded everything from the beautiful ballad “Stay” to the reggae/rock-inspired anthem “Rude Boy.” Her new, much-anticipated album—her first in more than three years (which, as we spoke, she was still working on)—has taken a while because, says Jay Z, “she wants it to be perfect.” One of the songs on it, the hypnotic “American Oxygen,” was released accompanied by a moving video with images of Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics, J.F.K. Jr. saluting his father’s coffin, Muhammad Ali, immigrants, ghettos, rocket launches, and more. Then there’s the 180-degree turn that was the single—the vengeful and humorous“Bitch Better Have My Money”—in which, Rihanna says, she plays a character but which is also a song about female empowerment. In the music business, Rihanna is a powerful woman; she recently made a deal to own all of her past and future master recordings, and from now on she’ll release her music through her company, Westbury Road. Says Jay Z, “What took me 15 or 20 years to get has taken her 10, and will take the next person 5 years. It’s great to be able to help fight that fight.”

REBELLE WITH A CAUSE
Rihanna in a contemplative moment, alongside a 1959 Chevrolet Impala, at the paladar La Guarida on Concordia Street.

While many people describe Rihanna as “fearless,” Jay Z says he sees her more as “fiery.” What Rihanna herself fears—aside from “haunted shit” and childbirth (even though she says she wants a child “so bad … eventually”)—is the pedestal that comes with fame. “It all looks very glittery and blinged out,” she says, “but it’s way too scary and unrealistic. There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.”So, even though she is more accessible—and polite—to her fans than some stars who pretend to be, she says her everyday conversations with her friends center on: how normal a life can she actually have? I mention that Eminem once told me he would trade a lot of his fame just to be able to go to the mall, and she exclaims, “Dude! Oh my God—this is scary and sad all at the same time. I literally dream about buying my own groceries.” Come on, I say. “Swear to God. Because it is something that is real and normal. Something that can keep you a little bit uncomfortable.” Uncomfortable? “A hundred percent. Because life is not perfect, and the minute you feel it’s perfect, it’s not real. Artists sign a deal to make music; we didn’t sign to be perfect, or to be role models. We’re all flawed human beings who are learning and growing and evolving and going through the same bullshit as everybody else. The fact that people expect the day we sign we’re supposed to be perfect does not make any fucking sense to me. Even tragedy, every trial in your life, is a test. It’s like a class—you take an exam, and if you pass, you move on to the next. You still have to take another test and prove yourself again.”And, having been through drama, dysfunctional relationships, and all those tests, when it comes to her personal life, Rihanna says that for now “I’m fine being with myself. I don’t want to really let anybody in. I’ve got too much on my plate, and I’m not even worried about it.” I say it will take a very special person to share her life. “A hundred percent,” she says. “A very extraordinary gentleman, with a lot of patience, will come along when I least expect it. And I don’t want it right now. I can’t really be everything for someone. This is my reality right now.” So one day, I say, someone will come in on a white horse … “No,” she says, laughing. “Not on a white horse. Probably on a black motorcycle.”Correction: As originally published, this article misstated Rihanna’s place of birth. It is Bridgetown, Barbados. The piece has also been updated to more accurately reflect the period during which her fans began referring to themselves as her “navy.”